Motorola Hits Back At Microsoft With A Patent Suit Of Its Own

When Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) slapped Motorola with a patent suit in October over nine patents associated with Motorola’s Android-based smartphones, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) said it would “vigorously defend itself” against the allegations. And that’s what it is now doing.

Motorola has filed a pantent infringement suit against Microsoft, a day after Microsoft filed a patent suit against Microsoft, its second since October, and one of several that it has filed against ODMs making Android-based handsets in the hotly-contested smartphone market.

In this latest legal strike, filed with the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Florida and the Western District of Wisconsin, Motorola Mobility says Microsoft has infringed 16 patents in Microsoft products ranging from its PC and server software, to Windows mobile software and Xbox products.

The suit comes a day after Microsoft filed a suit against Motorola for “unreasonable and discriminatory royalties” related to patents Motorola owns for wireless and video-coding technologies that Microsoft uses in products like the Xbox.

There have been no developments so far in the original suit that Microsoft laid on Motorola in October. In that case, Microsoft alleges that Motorola infringed on nine Microsoft patents in its Android-based smartphones.

“The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power,” Microsoft said at the time in a statement.

The hefty legal posturing between the two sides might mean that a settlement can be worked out – although a past patent suit, filed by Microsoft against HTC and also over Android devices, appears to have worked out in Microsoft’s favor. The software giant got HTC to agree to a broad patent agreement with Microsoft in conjunction with the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android platform. Details of the agreement were not disclosed, but HTC will have to pay Microsoft royalties.